Why Alaska thinks she might never be invited back to Drag Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Alaska has opened up about being potentially blacklisted by Drag Race production company World of Wonder, preventing her from returning for an “All Winners” season.
Fan favourite drag queen Alaska stormed the competition on All Stars 2, bagging four wins and eventually, the crown. Her success on the show led viewers to assume she would be included in the first “All Winners” season, All Stars 7, which aired in 2022.
Ultimately, she wasn’t cast in the series – a fact that she has previously admitted made her feel “very emotional” and “very hurt”.
In a new interview with fellow Drag Race alum Maddy Morphosis on her web series Give It To Me Straight, Alaska has spoken more about a potential Drag Race return, explaining why her podcast Race Chaser, which she hosts with season four contest Willam, may prevent her from being involved in the show again.
Maddy Mormophosis suggested that Alaska’s relationship with World of Wonder had “soured” due to her relationship with “persona non grata” Willam, who was famously disqualified for rule-breaking during her season.
“I think it comes down to Willam. Willam is actively acrimonious. I want to be clear that the reason our podcast works is that we don’t look at Drag Race the same way,” Alaska responded.
“She’s super critical of the show and the company, which I am too at times, but ultimately we don’t see it the same way. Just because I have a podcast with Willam, doesn’t mean the views expressed are exactly the same.”
Willam has garnered a name within the Drag Race fandom for spilling behind-the-scenes secrets about the show.
After Maddy asked Alaska whether she would ditch Willam and Rase Chaser in return for an “All Winners” comeback, Alaska admitted she would – sort of.
“Yeah, hasta la vista. I would do it,” she said. “When it happens, if they did ultimatum me, I’d say: ‘Alright, well that’s it.’ And once the time passed I’d be like, ‘Just kidding!’ What are they gonna do after the fact?”
Maddy then reminded Alaska that World of Wonder could then ban her from any other upcoming variations of the show.
“It sucks. It bums me out,” Alaska shared in response. “This podcast network is something we built together… If that has soured my relationship with World of Wonder, that breaks my heart. But I’m also so immensely proud of what we’re doing and I wouldn’t change that.”
The 38-year-old drag superstar revealed that she has tried to contact World of Wonder before about a Drag Race return, saying that she’d like to be a lip-sync assassin.
“My door is open. I’ve reached out. It’s my favourite thing in the world… so I don’t have any acrimony. I don’t have any ill will,” she said.
“I emailed when they first started doing lip-sync assassins. I emailed and I was like, ‘I live in LA and if you ever need a lip-sync assassin, I’m here’. They just wrote back: ‘Thanks for the email’.”
While it currently seems unlikely that Alaska will be appearing on any upcoming seasons of Drag Race in the immediate future, she also shared that if she did make an “All Winners” return, she wouldn’t want to win anyway – if she was up against one queen in particular.
“I want Bob [The Drag Queen] to win,” she confessed. “I would do everything to make sure she won, and I want to lose. It’s her season. That’s happening.”